WWT Caerlaverock : 12th October 2013

WWT Caerlaverock : 12th October 2013

Before returning to Manchester we drove over to WWT Caerlaverock to see how the autumn migration was looking on the opposite side of Scotland and that was exactly what we saw. The air was full of Whooper Swans and Barnacle Geese flying in skeins all over the sky flying in all sorts of directions as some arrived there for the first time this year and others were re-locating to the fields for the day. A truly wild and wonderful sight. And the birds were not the only surprise for us either !

We started off  with a walk around the Peter Scott trail which was disappointingly short on birds apart from the usual finches and Robin and Blackbird. We dropped in at the Folly Pond hide and here there were fairly high numbers of Teal and Wigeon and some Mute Swans, Mallards and Moorhens. We did not see the Lesser Scaup that was reportedly there so we headed on down to the Avenue Tower where there wasn’t a vast number of birds but we did get one long, long look at a Peregrine on a post looking as if it had just fed as it had blood stains on its chest that gave it a very powerful and dangerous appearance.

There were more birds down at the Salcot Merse Observatory and we got lots and lots of Barnacle Geese as well as Greylags and Canadas. They estimated that they have around 7000 Barnacle Geese at various places around the reserve so the noise levels were high as soon as you got out of the car in the car park and they never diminished.  As we walked back down from the hide we met with a couple of other people slowly coming our way along the path and they were clearly trying to photograph something. As we slowly walked along the path the reason became clear when a Grey Squirrel came dashing out of the undergrowth rapidly followed by a pursuing Stoat. A writhing ball of fur span round and round in the middle of the path before the Stoat prevailed and with jaws clamped around the Squirrel’s neck until it stopped struggling it then dragged it into the undergrowth at the side of the path. Nature raw in tooth and claw. This also reminded us that we were a bit peckish so after a quick cup of tea and a scone we set off on the long drive back to Manchester.

Bird Sightings : WWT Caerlaverock